[Arm-netbook] arm-netbook Digest, Vol 30, Issue 32

[Derek LaHousse]

On Wed, 2013-01-02 at 16:00 +0000, luke.leighton wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 12:43 PM, Alejandro Mery <amery at geeks.cl> wrote:
> 
> > for boards for hobbyists and expansions headers there are other boards
> > with Allwinner SoCs already available
> 
> alejandro: the point of the EOMA-68 initiative is that the exact same
> board that is available for mass-production *is* the exact same board
> for hobbyists and includes expansion headers.
> 
>  also the point is that those exact same hobbyists may consider
> replacing a board with an allwinner SoC at a later date with another
> EOMA-68 card with a better, faster or cheaper SoC.
> 
>  the closer that those hobbyists stick to the EOMA-68 standard of
> course, the more chance they will have at not having to do any kind of
> software upgrades, but sometimes that's not achieveable.
> 
>  l

Wot?  If you're using an expansion header, you're very unlikely to get
away with another CPU-card that uses the exact same pins.  Additionally,
another CPU may have another architecture, while being wholly EOMA-68
compliant.  So, it seems silly that one "wouldn't need software
upgrades".  
Additionally, the use of the Expansion Headers was only indicated for
"factory-installed" modules.  These are the ones I don't think are
replaceable.  Which is where the currently existing hobby boards apply.
To do the engineering for the EOMA-68, one needs a board with an I2C
EEPROM and the headers for the EOMA-68 interfaces.  The software should
read the configuration from the board EEPROM, doing the job of the
evb.bin on the A10.  No hardware development needs to be done to link an
A10 board with an STM32F board and use it as a valid engineering
platform for EOMA-68.  The requirement is to flash the EEPROM correctly
on your dev and prod boards.

Please help me understand if I have it wrong.  Thank you
Derek